Saving the Bridgewater Iron Works

There’s a plaque in storage at the Academy Building marking the inclusion of the stone storehouse at the Bridgewater Iron Works on the National Register of Historic Places.

But the building is in too great disrepair for the plaque to be affixed to its walls.

Historical Commission Chairman David Moore would love to see that plaque take its rightful place.

Rebecca Hyman

There’s a plaque in storage at the Academy Building marking the inclusion of the stone storehouse at the Bridgewater Iron Works on the National Register of Historic Places.

But the building is in too great disrepair for the plaque to be affixed to its walls.

Historical Commission Chairman David Moore would love to see that plaque take its rightful place.

Moore said job one is to stabilize the structure’s beautiful fieldstone walls, just about all that’s left of the building.

“Without that, the walls will be lost and the building will be lost and it would be a shame to lose the only building in town on the National Register,” Moore said.

Stabilizing the walls, though key, would be relatively inexpensive, he said, probably costing $15,000 at most.

And Community Preservation money has already been set aside to do that work, which was begun but never completed when the contractor walked off the job a couple of years ago.

The bigger question is funding a full restoration of the historic structure, which dates to about 1800 and is located at the old Bridgewater Iron Works site next to the highway garage off High Street.

As it stands, it is a shell without a roof or windows, covered in scaffolding and capped with black sheeting. The roof was removed in 2003 because it was starting to collapse, Moore said.

But Moore, standing in the footprint of the ruins, said he can envision it filled with music and laughter, an ideal function hall for weddings and concerts.

It would have great rustic charm with its original timber-frame roof restored, perhaps serving as a quasi-museum, decorated with Bridgewater artifacts such as the vintage milk wagon the Historical Commission owns.

“We could have standing displays from Bridgewater’s history to enhance the beauty of the antique building,” Moore said.

And it would be the perfect complement to the adjacent Iron Works Park, where events could take place outdoors in good weather, using the function hall for receptions, he said.

A little-known gem off High Street, the picturesque patch of greenery sits on an island between the banks of the Town River. In the seclusion of tall shade trees, birds sing and the river trickles by. It’s hard to imagine High Street is just feet away.

Moore said the building could be buttoned up with a roof, windows and climate control and used for storage for an estimated $300,000. That would be the bare minimum to preserve it and could be done as a placeholder to prevent further damage.

But a full restoration has been estimated at $1 million, he said.

“Right now there is no money to restore the building the way it should be, but if we don’t do something soon, there will be no building to restore,” Moore said.

Moore said he thinks a function hall would be the best and highest use for the building but there are many other possibilities, including a storage facility for town records or office space, possibly for the conservation and recreation departments, given the proximity of open space — or some combination of uses.

Town Planner Greg Guimond is looking for neighborhood involvement on a committee to discuss re-use scenarios of the building and bolstering use of the park, which has been open to the public for a decade but seems to be little known and underutilized, Moore said.

Moore would like to see the park become a center of recreational activity in Bridgewater. It has the advantage of seeming isolated without actually being isolated, given the proximity of the highway department and the Forty-Niners bocce club. It also has plenty of parking and picture-perfect scenery.

“Bridgewater doesn’t have a town park similar to West Bridgewater’s or Brockton’s D.W. Field Park, a place you can go on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy some fresh air with your family,” Moore said.

Moore said the town has a bad habit of purchasing open space and then not taking full advantage of it, such as Camp Titicut and the Stiles and Hart Conservation Park. He’d like to see Community Preservation money used to restore the stone building instead of being spent on new acquisitions like the Calthrop Trust property off Cherry Street.

“Rather than picking up another large parcel of land, I’d like to see that money used to better utilize land we already own,” Moore said.